Ray Ison, Professor in Systems at the UK Open University since 1994, is a member of the Applied Systems Thinking in Practice Group. From 2008-15 he also developed and ran the Systemic Governance Research Program at Monash University, Melbourne. In this blog he reflects on contemporary issues from a systemic perspective.

Saturday, April 27, 2013

In the words of Frances Harrison, today in London 'The Commonwealth has failed its first major test since it strengthened its Ministerial Action Group in 2011 to renew its commitment to human rights and democratic values.'

Australia's stance in this situation is shameful - and the shame crosses party lines. In contrast Canada has shown moral courage, as evidenced by the actions of the Canadian Foreign Minister when leaving the London meeting:

"Asked about what the Commonwealth Secretary General Kamlesh Sharma
says is positive engagement with Sri Lanka, Mr Baird [Canada's Foreign Minister] replied that he
would rather accept the judgement and conclusions of the Commonwealth
Journalists Association, the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, The
Commonwealth Lawyers Association, the Commonwealth Legal Education
Association, the Commonwealth Magistrates and Judges, Human Rights Watch
and the UN Human Rights Council. All of these have pointed to a
deterioration of civil liberties and human rights in Sri Lanka after the
end of the civil war.

Mr Baird said Canada cared passionately about the issue of Sri Lanka
and it wasn’t just going to “go alone to get along”. He added it wasn’t
about accommodating evil, but about combating it."

Friday, April 26, 2013

This example from the UK leads me to ask yet again: why is it so difficult to do 'joined-up' governance? This report's recommendations seem relatively simple yet, based on past experience, we could have little confidence that their enactment was feasible or possible.

Twitter hashtag: #coldenough

Around
25,000 preventable 'excess winter deaths' occur each year, and the annual cost
of cold-related illness to the NHS has been estimated at £1.36 billion.

This
report from the Strategic Society Centre provides a full strategic review of
the government's response to this ongoing public health scandal, and what it
should be doing in future.

The
report identifies four government departments with policies that touch upon
these issues:

Department for Work and Pensions

Department of Health

Department for Energy and Climate Change

Department for Communities and Local Government

However,
despite progress achieved via policies such as the Cold Weather Plan, Winter
Fuel Payments and the Warm Home Discount scheme, the report concludes the
government's policy response is still characterised by:

A fragmented, uncoordinated approach across different
government departments.

The domination of the issue of ‘fuel poverty’ over the
health effects of the cold, and an over-reliance on incomplete government
means testing data; and,

The clear need to do better.

Recommendations
of the report include:

Introduce an annual public health campaign linked to
the Winter Fuel Payment to further influence cold-related behaviour.

Create a single national ‘at-risk’ register for the
cold, integrating DWP, energy company, GP and local authority data.

"This paper discusses the current status of all aspects of education for
sustainable development (ESD) across the United Kingdom (UK), drawing on
evidence from its political jurisdictions (England, Northern Ireland,
Scotland and Wales), and setting out some characteristics of best
practice. The paper analyzes current barriers to progress, and outlines
future opportunities for enhancing the core role of education and
learning in the pursuit of a more sustainable future. Although effective
ESD exists at all levels, and in most learning contexts across the UK,
with good teaching and enhanced learner outcomes, the authors argue that
a wider adoption of ESD would result from the development of a
strategic framework which puts it at the core of the education policy
agenda in every jurisdiction. This would provide much needed coherence,
direction and impetus to existing initiatives, scale up and build on
existing good practice, and prevent unnecessary duplication of effort
and resources. The absence of an overarching UK strategy for sustainable
development that sets out a clear vision about the contribution
learning can make to its goals is a major barrier to progress. This
strategy needs to be coupled with the establishment of a pan-UK forum
for overseeing the promotion, implementation and evaluation of ESD."

It is remarkable how many academics and thus Universities shy away from strategies that locate ESD as central to the overall curiculum and thus a key aspect of graduateness.

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

This article has just come through as part of The Wrap, an update of developments from the Institute for Sustainable Futures at UTS (University of Technology Sydney). It is a great way to explore food issues systemically.

"The Love Food Hate Waste short film competition, organised by the
Institute and the City of Sydney, asked budding filmmakers to show the
world in either 30 seconds, or 3 to 5 minutes, why it’s important to
celebrate a healthy and sustainable love of food and highlight the
growing problem of food waste.

According to the NSW Environment Protection Authority, which funded
the competition as part of the Love Food Hate Waste program, NSW
households are throwing away edible food worth $2.5 billion each year.

The judging panel, including Costa Georgiadis, host of ABC’s
Gardening Australia, Jared Ingersol, founder of Danks Street Depot and
Sarah Wilson, television presenter and author, awarded Ryan Diefenbach’s
Rhythm of Waste best film in the 30 second category.

Ryan, a UTS student studying journalism and law, said that he had
never properly considered the issue of food waste before entering the
competition. “I decided to enter for the chance to develop my filmmaking
experience, but once I took a step back and understood the scale of the
problem I realised it’s an everyday issue that we can all help tackle,”
he said.

He enlisted his younger brother for Rhythm of Waste, portraying a child’s eating habits over a series of mornings contributing to bags of garbage.

Rhythm of Waste was also awarded the People’s Choice Award
after receiving the most votes in a public poll before the awards night
on the competition’s facebook page.
The 3 to 5 minute category was won by director Fiona McGee for Supervalue,
uncovering the lifecycle of a packet of fish fingers, from the life of
the fish in the ocean to the leftovers thrown in the bin after a meal.